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User blog:Adamantoise/Slow steps towards the future
Hey everyone! For those of you keeping up with my blog over on the True Blood Wiki, you know our wiki is changing, slowly but surely. Not exactly something we wanted to happen, but something Wikia is forcing upon all wikis. The first change was the change to the Global navigation bar. We are in Stage 2 now, where the bar at least develops transparency as you scroll down the page. The look and feel of the overall site aesthetics will also change, slowly but surely. As my blog article Our wiki is fixing to change... drastically. states, some wikis are already using the new look. The latest change eliminates the Special:Promote module, which, unfortunately, I never got a chance to play around with before its untimely demise. In an effort to replace the module with newness, and a way to create better overall visual aesthetics, Wikia introduced the new "Hero image", which adds an image to the top of the Main page. This also works to replace Special:Promote by using the image in page searches and Wikia mobile promotion. I've been playing around with two images on the TBWiki. The first uses the images also used within the page background, while the second uses the series logo, as superimposed in the credits sequence. While I like the second, it seems redundant juxtaposing the two logos, as the wiki logo stays in a fixed location. I uploaded a new version of the first as a revert didn't also revert crop location. Should be able to swap back and forth between the two with no problems now. Of course, other images can be added, also, although Wikia recommends not using regular screenshots, but recognizable imagery that will symbolize the content and be known by users as a definitive way of recognizing the series. It definitely makes the main page stand out although it also changes the complete visual look of the top navigation system. I'll have to see if we can edit the aesthetics of it now. There will be a lot more changes over the course of the next several months, hopefully all of them for the overall good of the wiki. I will keep you guys posted as new features are released. UPDATE: I was a little rushed earlier and didn't get to fully elaborate on everything. Unfortunately I really can't remember the full extent of what all I was going to write. In the process of keeping the wiki up-to-date with the changes being imposed upon all wikis, I have also been making sure that the Southern Vampire Mysteries Wiki is also being updated to reflect the changes that are occurring. I added the hero image to the top of the SVM wiki, also, not only for visual aesthetics but for search engine optimization reasons. As the two wikis are to be used in conjunction with one another, both wikis should be updated to match the style and feel of one another. Granted, they are not copies of one another, and that's one reason why they don't look exactly the same. The skin is different for a reason. Each matches the look and feel of the content presented. Each uses its appropriate font for header images to give it a unified feel that, again, helps to match the look and feel of the content presented. Adding the hero image to both creates a feel of uniformity between the two. I want to retain an overall aesthetic feel of cohesion and connection between the two wikis, and although I still plan on creating infoboxes for the SVM wiki, there are still other things to be done to ensure the two wikis may be used in conjunction in one another. I will keep you posted as new changes are enforced, and will be here to help ensure that both wikis are seamlessly transitioned to conform with the changes Wikia is imposing upon all wikis. The changes could proved to be fangtastic, or they could wind up being a bloody mess. No matter what, I'll be here, same as the rest of the administrators here (we're all like a big family), to see the wiki into the future and beyond. Category:Blog posts